Too many turnovers and empty possessions. Too many offensive rebounds allowed.

A poor first-half finish.

A five-minute scoring drought in the second half.

It all proved costly and too much to overcome for Michigan, as it squandered a 13-point first-half lead and fell to Wake Forest, 72- 70, Sunday at the First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Roddy Gayle Jr. scored 11 and freshman L.J. Cason and Tre Donaldson added 10 apiece for Michigan (1- 1), which shot 34.5% in the second half (10-for-29) and made only three field goals over the final 10 minutes.

After Michigan saw a 13-point lead whittle down to four by halftime, it eventually saw its advantage completely wiped out by the hot hand of Wake Forest’s Tre’Von Spillers.

Spillers hit three consecutive shots and scored eight points in a little over a minute. That started with a 3-pointer that put Wake Forest up, 44-43, and had Michigan trailing for the first time all game with 15:56 left in the second half.

That triggered a stretch where the teams traded shots and Michigan answered with a couple big buckets. Nimari Burnett connected on a 3-pointer and Cason scored a tough layup in transition to put the Wolverines back in front, 52-49, with 12:10 to go. Michigan and Wake Forest continued to go back and forth until the Wolverines went cold and missed 10 consecutive shots. A 10-0 spurt bookended by floaters from Hunter Sallis put the Demon Deacons back in front, 63-57.

Vlad Goldin snapped Michigan’s five-minute drought without a point or made field goal with back-to-back layups to pull within 63-61 with 5:01 remaining.

But the Wolverines couldn’t claw back in front as they wasted one opportunity after another to tie or take the lead in the closing minutes.

A turnover on one possession. A shot-clock violation on another. A missed fast-break layup by Donaldson.

A traveling violation by Danny Wolf when he lost his footing and slipped.

Another turnover by Gayle when he slipped and lost the ball that resulted in a back-breaking, fast-break dunk for Spiller and a fourpoint game with 38 seconds to go.

Michigan had a one last chance to tie it and force overtime after Sallis made two free throws to make it 72-69 with 4.7 seconds left.

Wake Forest opted to foul Rubin Jones with 1.7 seconds left. Jones made the first and purposely missed the second, but the ball bounced off the side of the rim and no one could corral it before time expired.

Sallis finished with 18 points, Spillers 16 and Juke Harris scored 11 for Wake Forest (3-0). The Deamon Deacons — who were picked to finish third in the ACC preseason poll — turned 11 offensive rebounds into eight second-chance points and scored 12 points off 16 Michigan turnovers.